Lost
by DeadNotSleeping2048
Summary: Bellamy returns from a hunting party to find his worst nightmare. How does he cope when the girl he loves goes missing, and he knows just where to find her.
1. Chapter 1

Lost

Bellamy was heading back at the drop-ship after a day of hunting with a few of his best guards. They had been out since the ass-crack of dawn and had caught almost nothing. A few rabbits had been trapped in snares hanging from the trees and they'd caught a couple of birds and a squirrel, but it wasn't nearly enough. The 100 would get through everything they'd caught in the next evening. It looks like they were going back out again tomorrow. The winter months were hard, not only was it freezing all of the time, but hunting was a lot harder as animals were hiding away from the harsh winter winds. Even so, the woods had seemed eerily quiet that day, the only sound being their footsteps and the gentle breeze whistling through the trees.

When they drew near to the camp, Bellamy stopped suddenly and motioned for the others to stay behind him. They were behind a row of trees, near the entrance of the drop-ship. Normally from here, you could hear all of the noises that the teenagers made in the camp. It was always impossibly loud in camp, Clarke always hated it. Now it seemed deathly silent. Something was really wrong.

Bellamy crept stealthily into the camp, his fellow hunter following behind him. They arrived in the centre of the clearing, which was deserted. Bellamy knew he had to pretend to be completely in control, if he seemed worried then the others would freak out and he couldn't allow that to happen. Octavia walked out of the drop-ship, looking surprised as she saw the assembled hunters, their gatherings forgotten near the fire.

As her eyes met Bellamy's, she flinched under the weight of his stare. She didn't want to be the one to break the news to him. But the others had insisted that it was best coming from her, plus he wouldn't hurt her as he would presumably do to anyone else.

She took his wrist and pulled him into the drop-ship. The teenagers gathered inside saw his face, seemed to pale and look worried, and then fled the room quickly. Octavia walked him over to one of the makeshift hospital beds and gestured for him to sit down.

"Bell. It's bad. She's gone. Nobody's seen her since this morning."

Bellamy wanted to pretend that he didn't know who his sister was talking about. He wanted to pretend that he hadn't noticed that she hadn't met him at the entrance as she normally did, to fuss over minor injuries and berate him for not being more careful. He wanted to pretend that she'd just gone for a walk and lost track of time, or just got lost in the forest nearby. But the truth was that he was lost without her. He didn't know if he'd ever see her again. Whether he'd be able to annoy her by calling her Princess, which had started out as a sarcastic nickname for how much better than the rest of them she thought she was but just turned into a term of endearment.

How was the camp supposed to function without her? How was _he _supposed to function without her? He felt the weight of hopelessness sinking into his skin. Without Clarke, he was nothing. He loved her, not that he'd ever told her. She just knew, she always understood him. But now, he was regretting never telling her how he felt. He may never get the chance.

He knew that he had to be strong, take control of the situation. He was the sole leader of 100 scared teenagers now, and he had to be brave for them. But his strength was spent and his courage disappeared. He was only 23 but he'd lived so much in his short years. So much fear. So much pain. He never had a proper childhood; he'd spent most of it worrying about Octavia. This was so much worse.

Bellamy didn't know what happened, he'd been making plans of a speech to convince the others to stay strong because Clarke would be okay, and the next thing he knew he was sobbing into Octavia's chest, gasping for breath. She knew him almost as well as Clarke did, they were the only two he'd let into his heart. Of course she knew how her big brother felt for his co-leader. That was why she'd brought him in here to have some privacy while she told him that the girl he loved was missing, presumed dead. But she'd never seen him like this. He was always putting up a front, even when he was hurting on the inside. She'd never even seen him cry before and now he was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. She held him tightly, praying that her brother would be okay. Because when he let someone in, he'd do anything to keep them safe. She knew he was blaming himself, the best members of the guard had been out with him, but she reassured him that the camp needed to eat and that he couldn't have known. She stroked circles in his hair, until he finally relaxed, having cried himself to sleep.

Bellamy woke up a few hours later with a pounding headache. His eyes ached and his was exhausted. Turns out emotional breakdowns sap your energy. He couldn't help thinking about Clarke. Where she was. Best case scenario she was lost and scared and alone. He didn't want to think of any other possibilities. But he realised that his princess was way too smart to have just got lost. It was the grounders. Obviously they'd grown fed up of sharing what was once all their land and had decided to cripple their enemy by taking their heart and soul. Because they thought they'd get rid of both leaders by taking Clarke. Not on his watch. Bellamy was going to get her back.

He walked out of the drop-ship and made his way over to the gathering of teenagers standing around the campfire. They were eating what little meat the hunting party had managed to gather. As Bellamy joined the group, all heads turned to him. His expression was cold and there was a gleam of vicious bloodthirsty anger in his eyes.

"You all know why I'm here. They took one of us. We all know what Clarke would do for us if it was the other way around. So I'm here, not as your leader, but to ask you a favour. Who is willing to stand up to those who will kidnap an innocent girl, for no reason other than to try to cripple us. They're trying to tear us apart. Make us turn on each other. Split up their targets so we're weak and defenceless. But we are not going down without a fight. I say that if they want her, they have to go through me. We defend our own. Right now Clarke will be frightened and alone, but she'll be giving them a hell of a fight. We need to do the same. So who's with me? Let's go and get our princess back."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**I have been overwhelmed by the amount of support for this story already. I was originally planning on it being just a one-shot, but now I'm thinking of extending it. Comment if you think I should continue. The quote is from a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, mentioned at the start of Breaking Dawn. Sorry about the Twilight bashing :/ but I doubt that it would be Bellamy's favourite book.**

The rescue party consisted of Bellamy, Finn, Raven, Jasper and Monty. Octavia was insisting that she wanted to go but Bellamy wouldn't hear of it. He couldn't let the other girl he loved get hurt as well. Besides, as he pointed out to her, she was the only one left in the camp even remotely capable of performing first aid. They were almost ready to set off, just waiting for the first rays of dawn so they would be able to see their way through the forest. As much as Bellamy had wanted to leave camp right away, even he had to admit that going a night would have just gotten them all killed.

The group of them was so small, although almost the entire camp had volunteered to come, because Bellamy was planning on it being an undercover mission. The grounders outnumbered them 10 to 1; they would be slaughtered if it came down to full-scale war. Miller was in charge until they came back, he had been told that if the grounders caught them the rest of the 100 should deny any knowledge of their rescue mission and hope that the grounders spared them.

Bellamy marched ahead of the others, not looking back. He knew his aim in this mission, not that he'd admit it to them. He seriously doubted that Clarke was still alive. He was going to go in alone, insist that the others stayed to watch out for grounders. He wasn't coming back without his princess. The other four on the mission seemed almost as if they were going out for a fun day trip. They were all so young; they didn't understand the hardships of life. They didn't understand that the grounders were probably either torturing Clarke right at this moment for information about their weaknesses, or they'd killed her for refusing to cooperate.

They were just children. Bellamy thought of a quote from a book which Octavia had forced him to read with her. The book had been awful, about weird glittery paedophile vampires and the world's most boring girl, but the epigraph at the start had caught his attention. It really felt relevant when describing the people he was currently with.

"_Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age_  
_The child is grown, and puts away childish things._  
_Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies."_

The others were only young; they'd never faced true hardship like Bellamy had. Sure, they'd had more than their fair share of teenage angst, they were criminals after all, but none of them had really experienced how cruel the world gets like he had. It had corrupted his innocent mind, destroyed his faith and hope, made him pessimistic and angry at the way things were. That was the cause of the "Whatever the hell we want" chanting that he'd started. He'd never been allowed to be selfish. He'd always had to help his mother look after Octavia or steal rations so that they'd have enough to share between the three of them. He had grown up too fast. And although Clarke seemed like she'd had the perfect life, once he got to know her, he realised one really important thing about his princess. She acted like everything was alright, even though her world was falling apart around her. Even though her dad had been executed and it was her mum's fault. Even though she hated herself because she had lived when her father didn't.

He supposed that was the reason they'd become so close so quickly. Nobody had expected it to happen. One day, they were fighting over how to lead the camp and the next they were confessing that they wouldn't be able to live without each other.

He knew that they were getting close now; they'd been walking for hours. He turned to the others.

"Raven and Monty. I need you to get up high. Watch out for grounders. Contact us if you see any. Find us a clear route." He handed them a walkie talkie, the other one was in his pocket. They each had a gun, but this was strictly for emergencies only. Bellamy refused to let them sabotage the mission by being stupid.

He then motioned for Finn and Jasper to follow him. They were steadily coming up towards the clearing in which the village was located, Bellamy could tell as the trees were starting to thin. He pretended to be waiting for a message from Raven. He knew it wasn't going to come; he'd dismantled the walkie talkie to stop her from being able to get through to them. It was all part of his plan to go in alone. He addressed the others.

"Wait here. I'll scout ahead. I'll come back and tell you when the coast is clear."

"I don't think that's a good idea Bell. You're our leader; we need you to stay safe." Protested Jasper. Finn just looked frustrated, like he knew exactly what Bellamy was trying to do and couldn't find the energy to stop him. Looks like spacewalker isn't quite as thick as he seems.

Bellamy glared at Jasper, extinguishing his protests immediately. He crouched down and started slowly moving through the still dense undergrowth, as the tree cover was no longer thick enough to hide him. He managed to get close to the centre of the village without any problems. There was nobody in sight. This was unnerving.

Once he was fully out of the forest, he straightened up and began walking purposefully, as if he wasn't out of place. It was a trick he'd learned while working as a guard back on the ark. Act like you know where you're going and the whole world will assume that you're meant to be there. Not that it really mattered anyway, considering the complete lack of people in the village.

When he entered what appeared to be the centre of the village, he realised why he hadn't seen anybody on the way in. All of the grounders were in there and they were all staring directly at him. He was surrounded, there was no escape.

One of them, Bellamy quickly identified her as their leader by the way others gathered around her, walked towards his and stopped only when their faces were inches apart. She smirked, "Bellamy Blake. We've been expecting you."


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm sorry about it being short and any mistakes, I had to type it on my phone because I'm currently having computer problems.**

Where is she?" Bellamy growled. The grounders started to advance on him, getting ready to attack.  
"Mr. Blake, you aren't really in a position to make demands. We do not have the girl." Replied Lexa, rolling her eyes.  
"Liar." Bellamy snarled. The guards who were tightly packed around Lexa started to draw their weapons, ready for a fight. Lexa, however, had no intentions of letting it come down to a fight. Obviously Bellamy wouldn't stand a chance and then his people would retaliate and they'd have a war. She knew that she couldn't cope with a war on two fronts, so they had to try and make nice with the sky people, so the two groups could team up against their real threat.  
"You can search our whole village if you wish, it would just be a waste of your time." Bellamy saw the honesty in her eyes and realised that she had no reason to lie to him. They could have easily killed him a million times over, and yet he was still alive and completely unharmed. He felt himself starting to shake. Clarke being imprisoned by the grounders had been one of the less traumatic scenarios playing on his mind. Now that he knew she wasn't here, what was the point. He'd never find her. She could be anywhere by now, it had been more than 36 hours since anybody had seen her and no one had a clue even which way she went.  
Bellamy felt his legs give out and he fell to his knees. He knew he should be pretending to be strong, to be unbothered in front of his enemies. He also couldn't bring himself to care. Since he'd been travelling to find Clarke, his hope of finding her unharmed and alive had been increasing with every step he took towards her. Now that he had no goal, the hope fell away and he was as lost as he was when he heard the news.  
Lexa walked towards him. She pitied the boy. He'd obviously made the fatal mistake that she had all those years ago with Costia.  
"Just because we don't have her, doesn't mean we don't know where she is." Lexa pointed out, walking towards the man who was desperately trying not to cry in front of them. Bellamy's head snapped up immediately, his eyes meeting hers. She saw the pain and hopelessness in his eyes and decided to help him.  
"She'll have been taken by the mountain men. They've been taking our people like this for generations. We have people who check on your camp occasionally, monitoring whether you were a threat. We noticed her disappearance and knew you'd think it was us, that's how we were prepared.  
Bellamy was almost too worried about Clarke to even register the fact that the grounders not only knew where their base was, but also had people there watching it. He knew that if he didn't do exactly as Lexa wanted, they could have people taking the rest of the 100 captive within minutes. He had to protect his little sister and the rest of his friends.  
A twig snapped loudly, just behind the tree line. "Shit" Bellamy heard Raven swear and laughed despite the situation. All heads turned to stare at the point in the forest where the sound had come from.  
"Its okay." Bellamy told Lexa. "They're just my friends, they are no threat to you or your people." As he said this, he pulled himself back up to his feet.  
A sheepish looking Raven walked out of the forest, followed by Finn, Jasper and Monty. "Sorry, we were just trying to eavesdrop but Raven is incapable of being quiet." Monty explained irritably.  
Bellamy rolled his eyes at them as they joined him in the centre of the circle of grounders. "By the way Bell, we will discuss your stupidity of ditching all of the people with guns and getting surrounded by grounders later."  
"They know where Clarke is." Bellamy told them, his voice raspy.  
"No offence to anyone, but how do we know that we can trust them?" Jasper asked.  
"We don't."  
"Then why don't we just leave and we can find her without their help."  
"You don't get it Jasper. We will never find her without them. They know the forests and they know what we're up against. We don't. We have no other choice. I am willing to do anything to get her back."  
The grounder warriors looked amused at their conversation and the absolute desperation in Bellamy's voice. They thought how Lexa was right, love is weakness and this boy clearly had too much of it.  
"We have thousands in that mountain. Alone we cannot save them, but with your help we will have enough to forge an attack on Mount Weather. Neither of our groups have the numbers or techniques needed to take the mountain, they have more advanced weaponry and security than we can compete with. If we team up and teach each other skills, we'd have a massive advantage that they wouldn't be expecting. We could win this war. But only if we are in this together." Lexa offered her right hand for Bellamy to shake. He grasped it firmly with his own and replied.  
"Together."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After the decision had been made to join forces, everything moved so fast. Bellamy sent Finn and Raven to fetch the rest of the delinquents and bring them to the Grounders village. He had considered the fact that this could all be a trap but he trusted Lexa for some reason. When all of the others arrived, training started.

Training was incredible to watch. The groups merged perfectly. The 100 were staying in the houses of the villagers, who had been kind enough to offer to shelter and feed them. The grounders were teaching the people from the arc how to fight without weapons and the sky people were teaching the grounders how to make and use the weapons that they'd found. They were also working together on specific technology to disable the security of the mountain, which Lexa had told Bellamy everything she knew about. The grounder medics had taken Octavia under their wing and were teaching her how to save lives, which was particularly useful as Clarke had been the only one to really know anything about medicine.

Lexa had been right, nobody could question it. Together, the two groups were an unstoppable force. Clarke would be so proud. Not only had they made peace with the grounders, but they were learning from each other as she'd always wanted.

After two weeks of training, Bellamy began to get restless and impatient. He knew that every minute they used now, Clarke was being tortured and by the time they were ready it could be too late to save her. Lexa had pointed out to him, that if they attacked at the moment, they would lose within minutes and be of no use to anyone inside. He reluctantly agreed that she was right, but was still trying to rush all of the training to be as fast as possible. His Clarke needed him.

"We're ready." Lexa said, walking into the room in her hut in which Bellamy was staying. He was lying in his makeshift bed, still half asleep. He looked confused for a second, but when he realised what she was saying, he leapt from the bed and scrambled to get ready.

"When do we attack?"

"We move out at nightfall. We camp outside their range of detection. Then we attack at dawn."

"What about the poison gas?"

"Raven has got that sorted. It's acid fog, it can be neutralised by limestone. We already have men out there surrounding the gas dispensers with it."

* * *

The rest of that day passed in a haze. Most of the group were excited. This was the day that they'd been waiting for. However, there was some hesitance in the group of delinquents. The grounders were used to war and death and had made peace with the fact that some of them might have to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. The others weren't so sure. Bellamy gathered them all for a meeting just before dusk.

"The people in that mountain took Clarke. They've taken so many people. We don't know why. They have been taking the grounders for generations, for longer than their records have existed. And they will not stop. If we don't do this now, it won't just be Clarke alone in that mountain. They will take us all one by one. Never before has a force powerful enough to defeat them been created. Now we have the chance to fight. To do something about this. To stop them from taking anyone else that we love. To make things right. From this war, we have gained peace and understanding with our neighbours. We need to do this, once and for all. For all of our sakes." He walked around the group, meeting the eyes of every single member.

"Never again will they cross us. Never again will they take our people. I know that you're scared. I am too. Some of us may not come back from this. But I am willing to risk my life for the safety of everyone else. For our future. We fight together. We die together. We will win this war. Who's with me?"

Unlike the first speech he'd made since the kidnapping of Clarke, there was no hesitance in the reply from his people. Instead, there was an answering roar. A deafening roar. Showing that they would follow Bellamy in life and in death.

"Now, pack your stuff. We may not be back for a while."

The rest of the 100 left Bellamy, to go back and pack for their trip. He received numerous claps on the back and cheers as people passed him. He sat down on a nearby rock. A lonely figure appeared from the shadows.

"That was very... What's the word?" Asked Lexa as she slowly moved towards Bellamy.

"Tiresome? Uninteresting? Tedious?" He replied, expecting another lecture on how feelings and love were weakness and that to be a strong leader, he needed to know no emotion, show no fear.

"I was going to say inspirational." Lexa remarked as she sat beside him. His eyes showed surprise that she was being nice to him. He knew that she respected him, but he never thought that she liked him.

"You know, Bellamy. I haven't always been against love. There was a girl. Her name was Costia. She was captured by the Ice Nation whose queen believed she knew my secrets. Because she was mine. They tortured her, killed her, cut off her head. They wanted to break me in the worst way. Since then, I've never let anybody see my weaknesses. They will just use them against me. Love is weakness. But you showed me that maybe that's not true. You take your love for your sister and for Clarke and use it. Love is your strength. You let your heart guide you. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Just be careful. I actually don't dislike you as much as I thought I would."

She walked off before Bellamy was able to respond. He was in shock. Not about her sexuality, he didn't care about that. He was shocked that not only had Lexa admitted her weakness to him, but she'd even seemed as though somewhere, deep down, she cared about him as well.

Lexa had admitted that love could be a strength. She had stopped trying to convince him to let go of Clarke. She had even said she trusted him, not in so many words, but nevertheless she had told him her deepest secret. She had bared her soul to him. Now he felt himself fill with hope. Tomorrow, he'd see his Clarke again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it's a filler chapter, there's really only one more chapter to go after this and I promise it will be full of action and will probably be coming very soon. Sorry about the mistake, somehow I managed to upload the wrong chapter.**

The group of thousands of warriors, grounders and sky people alike, was an incredible sight. From his vantage point, all Bellamy saw was an army of people working together as one. He was surrounded by intermingling colours of different grounder clan uniforms and the dark leather jackets that his people seemed to love as they all readied for their journey. Their faces were lit up in the dim, flickering light of the torches. Through war with the mountain men, they had found peace with the grounders. It was beautiful really, how people who thought they were so different realised their similarities through a common goal. A goal that every single person in that group wanted to achieve more than anything, and were willing to risk their lives for. Not a single one of them was unaffected by disappearances of their friends and families, those that they loved dearly had been taken from them. Now was their chance to stand up and fight for their freedom from the fear and pain that the mountain men had been inflicting for far too long.

It would take them only three hours to reach Mount Weather. Two if they ran, but even Bellamy had to admit that it was unreasonable to expect their army to run that far before the battle. Anyway, their attack wouldn't start until just before the dawn. He would be leading the army with Lexa. They would be leading the charge, followed by Lexa's three most trusted guards, Lincoln, Raven, Finn, Jasper and Monty. He had wanted to make his friends stay back, away from the danger. But they refused as he knew they would. Raven insisted that she didn't want to miss out on all of the fun, and the others had agreed. Octavia, however, he would not allow to be there. After hours of screaming and threatening and many tantrums, they eventually struck a deal that would keep her away from the line of fire. As she was a medic, she would stay with the grounder healers and use the medical skills she had learned through assisting Clarke to treat the injured.

"March." Screamed Lexa from beside him. The milling crowd of people stopped in unison and quickly fell into rank. They looked ferocious, like a proper army. Almost like the Roman armies that Bellamy had been so amazed by in the history books that he read to Octavia back on the ark. They were ready for anything.

* * *

After hours of walking through dense forests and swamps, Bellamy was glad for the amount of training Lexa had put them all through. Without it, he didn't think any of them would have gotten this far, having to fight their way through thick branches, sometimes crawling through the undergrowth when they had to. It had been awful, he was covered in dirt and sweat and blood, the latter of which was from when Lexa had let go of a tree branch and it had hit his nose. He had forgiven her immediately, even though her apology had sounded rather insincere, especially since she was barely attempting to hold back her laughter at the time. The others wouldn't stop making fun of him for it either. "Look, King Bellamy the great, brought down by a terrifying piece of wood." Octavia had checked him over and pronounced that it was broken, but not too badly, and that he should look where he was going in the future.

They had finally arrived at Mount Weather. They set up their tents just outside the radius of the mountains detection. When the torches were put out, the night was almost ethereal. His comrades were all sleeping, preparing for the morning, as he should be. But Bellamy was content, lying on his back and staring at the stars. The sky was pure black, the kind that seemed infinitely dark, making the glimmering stars even more pronounced. The moon was full, hanging low in the sky. He was startled by a hand on his shoulder. It was Raven. The two of them had never really got along well, but he was surprised to find he was glad of her presence.

"Can't sleep?" She asked, sitting down beside him.

"I'm just worried that I've made the wrong choice. So many people are risking their lives for me and now I doubt myself. What if there's a better way? What if this will just kill us all? I can't have any more blood on my hands."

"There is nothing you can do. These people are not risking their lives for you. Yes, you are leading them and inspiring them, but they are doing this for themselves. For their freedom and the freedom of those that they love. They are making their own decisions to follow you into this. They know the risks as well as you do, but they are still standing beside you. We all are. Now quit questioning yourself and go to bed, we need you at your best tomorrow and that won't happen if you spend all night thinking 'What if?'"

She left then, behind her the dark shadow of a boy who was forced to grow up far too fast and didn't want to start a war; he just wanted his princess back.

* * *

"Bellamy, wake up." Jasper shook him awake. "It's time."

"There's been a change of plans." Bellamy announced to the others. "Before we try the attack, I suggest we try to use everything we have at our disposal."

"And what does that mean?" Asked Lexa, scowling at him.

"We still have the element of surprise. We can try to mount a sneak attack. Just give me a chance. I'll sneak into the medical facility and I can break them all out through the grounder tunnels. I know the way, Lincoln has shown me. There's only one door between me and liberating all of our people without bloodshed."

"And if you fail..."

"You launch the attack."

"Very well, Bellamy Blake of the sky people. You have one hour. If you are not back here by that time, you will be assumed dead and the original plan will be carried out."

"Deal."


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm not sure whether to write another chapter or to leave it here after this. If you want me to continue and write an epilogue, tell me in the comments.**

He was ready for this. He had been preparing himself all night. The plan was simple. Sneak in, free the prisoners sneak out. Easier said than done. His friends had insisted that his plan was completely stupid, Raven had slapped him, but they couldn't change his mind. He was far too stubborn. The only one who would have been able to convince him not to do this was Clarke, and she was the reason he was so desperate to go in. If they used stealth, it would be easier to get her out safely; there would be less risk of her getting hurt. Bellamy knew that if they fought, she would want to help and would probably end up sacrificing herself for the others. He couldn't let that happen. Even Octavia hadn't been able to persuade him to change his mind; he just shut down any other suggestions before they had a chance of convincing him. He was determined to succeed.

He entered the cave that led to the grounder tunnels. It was pitch black and he was thankful for the torch that Octavia had slipped into his pocket when she gave him a hug for good luck. He crept down the passageway, knowing that if he was seen by any reapers, the mission was a failure. Surprisingly, he wasn't discovered. The tunnels were almost empty, he only encountered one group of reapers and even then they were far enough away that he wasn't too concerned. The heavy metal door into the mountain was not locked; the Mountain Men mistakenly presumed that they wouldn't be willing to enter through the tunnels below the mountain.

From the door where he entered the mountain, he was only about 200 metres away from the prisoners. Lexa had gone over how to get to them so many times. He wondered how she knew so much about the layout of the mountain, but knew better than to ask. Although they were now allies, calling them friends would be stretching the truth a little. They were merely cooperating to reach a common goal. However, the peace between their people would last long beyond this day. Clarke would be so proud of him when she realised what he had managed in her absence. He had done it for her.

He skulked down the empty corridor, keeping his head down in case anybody saw him, either in person or on security cameras. Raven was currently working on getting the cameras and security systems offline, but Bellamy had refused to wait as she couldn't guarantee when she would be finished. Every minute they wasted, Clarke was in pain. If he waited, it could be too late. When he reached the air vent, he crawled inside.

It was hard to fit; he struggled to move his shoulders once he was in. But he slowly managed to slide towards the exit which he knew would lead him to the room where they kept their prisoners. When he arrived, he peered through the gaps in the cover of the vent. There were no guards in sight. This was almost too easy. Maybe the Mountain Men were so overconfident in their security, that they had become complacent. Bellamy hoped that was the reason, but a niggling voice in the back of his mind insisted that it was more likely that it was a trap.

He could leave now and save himself. That wasn't really an option. How many lives would he be sacrificing for his own guarantee of safety? Too many to count. And he definitely couldn't leave without what he came here for, his Princess. So he quietly slipped the cover off the vent. He winced at the noise it made when it hit the floor, but there was no reaction. He carefully climbed out and entered the room.

When Lexa said that she had lost thousands to the Mountain Men, he'd thought she'd been exaggerating. But there was at least 100 grounders in the cages now and they had been kidnapping them for decades. He felt sick to his stomach when he saw the state of them. They were dirty and malnourished, cramped in cages that they could barely fit into with their limbs curled tightly around their bodies. There was no room to move, almost no room to breathe. They had obviously been abused, judging by the bruises and blood he saw covering their bodies. His breath left him then, if they were in this state, then what had they done to Clarke. Thinking of her, sitting in a cage like these, defeated, made him want to cry. Nobody would get away with doing that to her.

He found the keys to the cages, just lying on the table in the centre of the room. He frowned, this was looking more suspicious with every minute that passed. He couldn't find Clarke anywhere, but he began to unlock the cages of the grounders, who looked terrified by his presence.

"I'm not here to hurt you." He told them. "I am here with Lexa. She is waiting outside for you to return. We must be quick, or they will mount an attack."

After his announcement, they seemed relieved. They allowed him to lift them out of the cages after he had unlocked them. They could barely stand and he knew that they would find it hard to get away quickly. After the first ten had been released, he told them how to escape from the mountain. After this he sent them off in groups of five to escape together. When the last group of grounders was safely in the air vents, he set off to look for Clarke.

He wouldn't have found her if she hadn't found him first.

"Bellamy?" She called out, her voice pitiful and weak. She was curled up in a ball chained to the corner of the room. Her clothes were almost completely tattered and torn and she was so covered with dirt and blood that he could barely tell it was her. Even her hair was wildly matted and chunks had obviously been pulled out. "You should go. You've done so well. If you free me, they will know. They will catch you. It's okay. Tell the others that I love them all." She slumped against the wall, looking as if she was exhausted by her speech. From the way she looked, she probably was. Bellamy wasn't sure whether he was more angry or sad. He felt a tear slip from his eye and roll down his cheek. God knows what they must have done to her to make her give up. She was the most stubborn, bravest person he knows. Even now she was still trying to give her life to save his. He was not going to let her.

The key used to unlock the cages didn't work on her shackles. Bellamy grabbed a knife and tried to prise them open, but it was no good. "Don't." She told him. "If they open without authorisation, they set off an alarm. There will be thousands of them here in minutes." He stared at her. He knew what she had to do to escape. It wasn't going to be easy.

He had seen it on a video on the Ark, from an old Earth TV show. How to escape from handcuffs without opening them. All you had to do was dislocate your thumb. He winced, not sure how to tell Clarke this. He didn't want to hurt her, but it was better than leaving her there. She saw his expression and how he was looking closely at the handcuffs, trying to find another way and realised his plan. She inhaled sharply and set her jaw. There was no other way. They were made of metal, completely smooth and with no weak points. She would have to do this the hard way.

She gasped with pain; Bellamy covered her mouth with his hand. Now that she'd had to do that, he didn't want the guards alerted anyway. Tears ran down her cheeks but she composed herself quickly and slid her hands out of the cuffs. "Let's go." She said. She sounded more like the old Clarke in that moment and Bellamy was so proud of her. He picked her up, knowing that walking would hurt her. He carried her to the vents and slipped inside, pulling her behind him.

They exited the vents and walked towards the door that would lead them to safety. They were so close. So close but yet so far. A group of guards ran down the corridor, gripping pistols which were all aimed at the two teenagers.

"Bellamy Blake. You thought you could defeat us. Beat us at our own game. We have been doing this for years, did you not think we had a backup plan. You will not be allowed to leave with Clarke. We rather like her." He sneered and it was all that Bellamy could do to restrain himself from trying to wipe that smile off the perverts face. The only reason he managed was because of Clarke's tight grip on the back of his shirt. He knew that the guard was just trying to provoke him to do something stupid.

What happened next was too fast for him to register. The hallway went dark. It was still light enough to see due to emergency lights along the floor, but this shocked the guards. It shocked them enough for one of them to accidentally squeeze the trigger of his gun. The gun that was pointing at Clarke.

Bellamy let out a roar as he pushed Clarke behind him and through the heavy door which locked itself behind her. The power-cut must have caused the automatic locking system to work. Bellamy felt himself smiling as he fell to the ground. He had done it. He had saved Clarke as well as the many grounders. He was a hero and Clarke would be taken care of by their friends. Everything was okay. She would make sure the others were alright when she'd recovered. She would lead them. She was already like their mother, especially to Octavia. She would take care of them as they would take care of her.

They didn't need him anymore. His job was done. So it was okay for him to fade into the darkness. Just like falling asleep.


	7. Epilogue

**For this chapter, I have to apologise to ****_I have too much spare time_****. I am going to need to turn down the Moffat award. I officially promise that this will be the last chapter this time.**

Bellamy slowly opened his eyes and quickly closed them again due to the bright sunlight, which was making his head hurt. His head felt fuzzy, as if it was stuffed with cotton wool. He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain inside his abdomen told him that it wasn't a good idea. He groaned and lay back down.

His mind suddenly jolted as he remembered what had happened. Where was he? He forced his eyes open again and studied his surroundings. He was in a makeshift wooden shelter. How had he got here? The last thing he remembered was blacking out inside Mount Weather.

Lexa walked into the room. "Good. You are awake. People were starting to worry that you wouldn't." The way her nose turned up as she said that told him that she wasn't one of those people.

"How did I get here?" He rasped.

"You got lucky."

**_Flashback_**

_Clarke stumbled down the tunnel and towards the exit, pausing to retch multiple times along the way. At some point she fell to the floor and would have remained there if she hadn't needed to help Bellamy. He needed her to get the others. He'd taken a bullet for her. She needed to get him out of there. So she dragged her aching body forwards, towards the dim light she could see coming from the exit._

_When she made it out, she only got one word out, "Bellamy." Before promptly passing out on the floor. While Octavia and the grounder medics checked over Clarke, Lexa was organising a rescue plan for the boy._

_She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she had almost grown fond of the teenager. She definitely respected him. And after he had freed so many of her people, the least she could do was help him. As the door from the reapers tunnels was now deadlocked, they would have to go through the front door. It was funny, she supposed, she was orchestrating a rescue mission for the boy who got caught during a rescue mission. She just hoped that her fate would be better than his._

_The amount of luck involved was unbelievable. It turns out that the power cut had caused a leakage of radiation inside the mountain. Unlike the grounders and the 100, the mountain men hadn't evolved to be immune to the radiation as they had not spent any time in it. So, to escape from it, they had all fled to the lower levels of the mountain, which were still safe for them._

_This meant that Lexa could easily take in a group of warriors to fetch Bellamy without any confrontation. While they were in there, Raven had devised a set of magnetic locks to place on the outside of the two doors leading out of the mountain. These locks were intended to trap the mountain men inside, so they could no longer take people. After leaving, the locks were fixed onto the doors, ensuring that they would stay shut._

"Then we brought you back here, and you've been unconscious ever since."

"Where is Clarke?" Bellamy rasped. Lexa pointed to the corner and he struggled to lift his head to see her. When he saw the tangled blonde hair of the sleeping girl, he let out a weary sigh. She was going to need a while, but she would recover. Everything was okay. He had his princess back.


End file.
